My Custom "Darthscarf" Class and what I like about it

I look at alot of custom classes (although i usually only look and don't say anything) and I took notes and wanted to share them but instead of using someone elses as an example I thought I'd make and use my own and share my thought process. I'm not doing this to brag or show off but because I make and think about custom classes alot but I'm often too embarrassed about the quality and don't share them, I feel like alot of people might be the same way. I want to get more people into sharing their classes because I really enjoy reading everyones ideas and want people to finish and publish more custom classes!

Comments

The class
is called Darthscarf I know it’s not the best name but it ties it to the “Cult
of the Woven” and I think class lore/story is important! Cards and classes made
for purely mechanical/combat fun usually end up lacking, cards that are just
strong or just let you mess around like “deal x damage to x enemies” or “swap x
with x” can be fun but without combinations, themes or character relevance they
grow old quickly in-game. That doesn’t mean you can’t have purely strong or fun
abilities just try to make them complement each other, can be used in different
contexts and scenarios/ have a roleplay use and add some subtext to the card
itself example “Using the powers of the Woven One unleash the fury of your
scarf deal 10 damage to all adjacent enemies. Enemies damaged by this will only
fail to be swapped on a critical failure” this might compliment your swap
ability, it has context on how it works on a meta level and builds character on
your scarf & most importantly the effect can you used in a lot of ways (combat
and roleplay) although not all abilities have to be that way.

"This work falls under the CC BY 4.0 License and can be used and edited freely as long as you provide credit!"

Before I go
onto my class cards I’d like to acknowledge that I stole most of the ability name
puns from the “Charcoal and the Woven One” thread. (apologies for being unoriginal
in my jokes)

This first
ability is the core of the kit I’ll talk about how other cards compliment it
later. I think the first few cards you make for the class should be the most
essential and thematical ones, the core of the theme and kit. Making a few fun and
strong cards first means you can relax for the later cards and by relax, I mean
not take them as seriously. The first cards and the core essentials need to
provide the player with something to do that they enjoy and preferably that is
useful too. Take the swashbuckler ability swishswash and ignite
swishswash is a core card, it makes swashbuckler fun and it is useful to the
team. It is roleplay effects (drunkenness) as well as useful context (alcoholic
/ flammable) it makes a fringe spell like ignite a lot of fun and useful.
Ignite is an ability isn’t useful or essential to a character but in the right scenario
can be fun and interesting I doubt rob was concerned about balance with the
card or if it would be picked at all because it complements the kit but is more
interesting and surprising than useful. Obviously, a core ability like fireball
is flatout better but ignite with swishswash is just more fun.

Is the
second ability. When making core abilities and then making them combo with each
other it’s important to make those abilities the right imagery. I wanted my
woven follower to have the traditional Philhipe style of scarf, friendship and
being an NPC. This ability makes your maximum stamina drop unless you go on a
risky offensive fitting the style of the kit I want and making it work with the
scarf means people are more likely to take it making the playstyle more iconic.
The ability balances out the downside by providing some much-needed bonus
actions if you are beneath the 1 shot threshold. It’s a bit wordy and I should
probably tone it down but I think the mechanics of the ability are easier to
understand than read.

I’ll split
the posts so this isn’t so lengthy… kinda already is though; v)

custom cardonce again a more thematically card but the combination of no-roll successful basic attacks causing enemies to miss seems more useful even though applying eye-patches on enemies forcefully and applying blind to them would also fit thematically I personally find giving people a larger chance of failure is more entertaining than preventing success. Isn't REALLY worth the gold but I doubt you'll find a more stylish eye-patch for a better price in this economy! This ability gives you a better chance of Philhipe like moments where enemies fail to hurt your godlike RNG and the lack of consistency makes the event more meaningful. This card is more like ignite where its more design for cool moments than practical use although it isn't completely useless especially when combined other tools in your kit.

custom cardThis card is slightly stronger than it needs to be for the sake of not rolling twice for a regular action ability. also a gamemaster personally it shouldn't proc after the first spread. it goes well with poison against enemies and using it as your no-roll can get rid of smaller minions whilst providing a small heal to allies. Since the damage applies first you should be mildly careful and the added roleplay effect of heresy against scarves should be insentive enough not to be reckless with aoe heal/damage. I am at this point admittedly milking the double edged ability gimmick a little too much considering it has nothing to do with the class theme. In an ideal world it would probably not deal and heal or have a stun effect aswel but this isn't an essential ability and more of a "do you want to pay 100 gold to force other people to wear scarves?" kinda deal. although it isn't bad if you basic attack before hand (although at that point you are using multiple actions and could do way cooler combos)P.S I was gonna call it Woven Tomb after the thread and as a sickwow reference but decided to give it this goofy name and at least be a little more original

custom cardThis is a simple mainly roleplay card of you being a genuine friend. why? because the class based on friendship probably shouldn't betray people unless...

custom cardAn ability you need genuine friendship and trust among characters for. if multiple enemies betray you they all count as the lowest gaining a massive power surge in battle. but is it really worth your friendship? although not getting True Friend, applying charm to yourself and then making the dm go through this choice could be equally interesting (In an encounter if you are antiparty I wouldn't say minions count as "allies" personally although there may be balance issues there)

with these cards I tried to add I divide in choice in the kit. It really helps making replaying a class a new experience and play style despite being mostly the same kit. these two abilities are better without each other mechanically but both fit the theme and play style. greatsword and greatshield are similar where the playstyle changes even though you might get the same abilities and both fit the core theme. the choice of being a philhipe that befriends enemies only to be betrayed or a philhipe that stays true to his allies despite their disloyalty (and you having no direct way to stop their betrayal)

custom cardthis core ability compliments both True Friend and True Friendship. Just like chivalrypledge is good for both versions of warrior Dodge and Weave works well with both play styles. To be honest this ability was a passive dodge with difficult terrain creation on successful dodges but after seeing the season 4 post I re-read it and felt like dodge abilities are actually really boring and so are terrain spawns without a full combo kit to go with it. Also none of the scarf spells have elements assigned to them a) because I'm unsure of the elements it would even be and b) it doesn't matter as i doubt scarf magic would suffer from elemental bonus and penalties but this is also rather lazy on my part.

custom cardA goofy friendship spell. Gimmicky/useless. My last meme spell I promise. Too many jokes abilities and the class itself stops being serious. I kinda have taken it a little overboard but making friends is a Psuedo theme of the Darthscarf. This spells more practical use is to cause enemies to hit your allies instead of you, procing your scarf more. less effective combos like this are pretty common in classes because giving a single class too many effective and consistent tools makes them more overpowered than number fudged abilities.(most of the time) even a class with a regular action death roller is more fair than a class that deals with every encounter type with ease. Jack of all trade classes like sorcerer who has mobilty,burst damage,defense,25 regular action damage, knockback etc. is weak to the fact its own kit doesn't help itself that much sorcerer's knockbacks, blinds and burst fall short with the fact it has little to follow up with. making sure classes have choices to HELP in certain scenarios but not always be STRONG is useful for making for balanced classes.

custom carda strong alternative to playing blackboar. blackboar has some good synergy with the darthscarf kit. it has the weakness of deathrolls and not naturally obtaining extra damage into your kit through items,spells or gold that other races get and the advantaged being innate status immunity and double stamina gain from scarf. it's kinda a direct dis-insensitive but it's a support-ish class that tries to stay away from 1 hit threshold by getting successful battle scarves. Without a equalizer ability like this it might end up a massive blackboar tank that keeps distance with minion/friend block. although I don't believe in limiting what players can do I think encouraging more interactive engaging playstyles is more healthy for the game than tank and block pass turn fest.(although if you want to play like that or think the character would be funny fair enough )

custom cardif you have confidence that you'll be successful with battle scarves regularly and aren't afraid of the 1 hit threshold then this enables you to play alot more aggressively. if you really wanted to go insane with power you could take this with Improvised Aid although that is so glass canon it's suicidal. any interrupt would deal at least half you health before applying every status effect in the game. taking this card makes you the equivalent of a wizard in terms of health minus the burst damage. Low-key this and True Friendship after betraying team on meta level intentional is a meme. whoops I said no more meme cards. It's borderline op and borderline garbage depending on your allies which makes it balanced I guess... this is one of my more poorly designed cards BTW if you have any advice or tips for my class designing I'd love to hear them

custom cardFirst of the last 2 cards and the 2 weapons of Darthscarf this weapon focuses on getting allies out of danger, if an ally is attacked,you take a scarf action to attack until you crit and then try to get them from danger. the damage is low and range isn't the greatest it provides a dodge that is more in-depth then I get attacked so i roll a dice and on a meta level is more pleasing to this of an ally distracting an enemy for you to escape than you just matrixing pyroblasts.

custom cardthe cleaver is more about getting into trouble with allies then getting them out of it. more damage output and more mobility(compared to shootnscoot) overall both provide mobility and help to allies but shoot is the safer pick.

class weapons should compliment the kit most of all. i don't think i did very well with these designs but it does offer 2 modes of basic mobility for the class.(which is what puts it at risk the most) I don't really have the foresight of cross class combos and I think it's better to patch those specific flaws in class design as they come up.

I guessing the class gold would be around 600 but that's just a guess. It should be enough with normal racial and gold roll to get 3-5 class cards and an item or two. not good with gold estimates so i won't post about it.